It was supposed at the time when The Mystery
of Edwin Drood first made its appearance that the character of an English opium-smoker
was purely the outcome of Dickens fertile imagination. He who would then have
predicted that in a few years time the number of white men indulging in this Eastern
vice would be counted by thousands would have been pronounced insane. Such, however, is
the case. At a low estimate there are in this country, to-day, from three to five thousand
Americans, male and female, smoking opium once or twice daily, having formed a habit from
which they find it impossible to free themselves. The opium-smoker finds his chains as
binding and galling as does the opium-eater or morphine-taker.

Opium-Smoking in New YorkSeptember 24, 1881, page 645

It was supposed at the time when The Mystery
of Edwin Drood first made its appearance that the character of an English opium-smoker
was purely the outcome of Dickens fertile imagination. He who would then have
predicted that in a few years time the number of white men indulging in this Eastern
vice would be counted by thousands would have been pronounced insane. Such, however, is
the case. At a low estimate there are in this country, to-day, from three to five thousand
Americans, male and female, smoking opium once or twice daily, having formed a habit from
which they find it impossible to free themselves. The opium-smoker finds his chains as
binding and galling as does the opium-eater or morphine-taker.

The standing army of habitués is, furthermore,
being from day to day recruited from the ranks of the overcurious, indolent, or willfully
vicious. In this city, to my certain knowledge, thirteen persons have commenced to use the
pipe within the past seven days. Four of these are actresses.

Newspaper men have at various times attempted to
investigate the matter, but in most cases wholly failed, their failure being due to the
fact that they have based their articles upon a single tour of a few Chinese dens in the
company of detectives, where the information to be obtained was meagre and inaccurate. In
writing they drew largely upon their imagination, endeavoring to throw about the practice
a romantic mysticism supposed to be penetrable only by the true Oriental. In several
instances I have known white smokers, who were acquainted with the business of the
visitor, tell him the most silly and most outrageously false stories about the practice,
and then laugh heartily at the article when it appeared in print. This applies more
particularly to our Eastern papers. Hence it is that those people who suppose they know a
great deal about opium-smoking really know nothing.

In order to make my investigation of the matter
thorough and truthful, I made myself acquainted with some fifty male and female American
smokers in this city, became a daily visitor, staying for hours at the principal
smoking-house or "joint," had habitués smoking at my own house, where I could
more freely question and experiment upon them, smoked myself, in small quantities and to
excess, and had two of my male nurses smoking at various times. Furthermore, I have had
two smokers under treatment for the habit. In this way, and by means of letters addressed
to physicians, chiefs of police, and public men in various parts of the country, I have
been enabled to get at the whole truth in the matter.

The principal places in this city where opium is
smoked are in Mott, Pell, and Park streets. There is one in Chrystie Street, one in
Twenty-third Street, and several in Fourth and Second avenues. Besides these, there are
private rooms where a few friends, having provided themselves with a full outfit, smoke in
secrecy, and a number of Chinese laundries where a few Americans smoke. All of these
places, except the one in Twenty-third Street, which is presided over by a white woman and
her two daughters, and the private rooms, are kept by Chinamen. These places are, as a
rule, in the basement, and consist of a small, low-ceilinged room, guiltless of all
furniture save long wooden bunks, about four feet in width, made of board and covered with
matting. There is usually but one tier, raised about two feet from the floor. A long
narrow board, sometimes beveled, running along the wall just above the bunk, or small
stools covered with cloth, serve as pillows, or, more properly, head-rests, for the
smokers. In the principal American joint , in the centre of Chinatown, where all
nationalities seem indiscriminately mixed, you go down a short flight of steps into the
basement, when you find yourself in a small room. Near the entrance is a small table,
where the proprietor may be found every morning cleaning and filing the little glass lamps
used in smoking. On the left of the centre is a small compartment (four by fifteen feet),
a large table occupying most of the space. This is where games of chance are played by the
Chinese. To the right is another boarded compartment of about the same size, in which the
proprietor keeps his pipes, opium, and scales, and one small bunk for smoking. Going
through a narrow passage between the two, we come to an image of some deity, before which
a light is constantly burning. To the right of this is a door which leads into the
"joint," or smoking-room. Upon three sides of this place are arranged bunks, in
the rear there being two tiers of them, the upper one, however, being seldom used.
Lightor semi-gloomand air are furnished by one small window close up to the
ceiling, and so placed that proper ventilation is an impossibility. In this place may be
found, from 10 a.m. until 8 a.m. the following morning, from one to thirty American
smokers. They usually come and go in parties of two or three.

In Chicago, San Francisco, and other places in
the West some of the joints are fitted up magnificently, all the surroundings being in
true Oriental style.

The smoker entering a joint usually removes his
coat, collar, and shoes, hangs them upon a peg, and, stretching himself transversely
across the bunk beside a tray containing the necessary apparatus, calls for a pipe and
some opium. The usual quantity asked for is twenty-five cents worth. For this money
the Chinaman gives from six to ten "fun" (thirty-two to sixty-four grains) of
No. 1, or first-class, or double the quantity of No. 2, or second-class, opium.

Opium for smoking purposes is made in China from
the crude opium imported from India. It is made by repeated boiling, filtering, and
evaporation, until it becomes of a blackish color and treacle-like consistence. It has a
rich creamy odor, and is very expensive. It is weak in morphia, the India opium from which
it is made containing but about three per cent. of morphia as against from twelve to
seventeen per cent. in the Turkey opium used for medicinal purposes in this country.

No aqueous extract of opium made in England or
America possesses the flavor or "cooking" qualities of Chinese smoking opium.
From China it reaches us through San Francisco. It comes in small tin boxes holding about
four ounces, and worth from $7.75 to $8.30 per can.

Having the necessary articles and opium brought
to him by the keeper of the joint, the smoker settles himself comfortably upon his side,
takes up a little of the treacle-like opium which is brought to him in a small clam shell,
upon a long steel needle, or yen hanck, and holding it above the flame of the lamp,
watches it bubble and swell to eight or ten times its original size. In doing so it loses
its inky hue, becomes of a bright golden brown color, and gives off a creamy odor, much
admired by old smokers. Poor opium does not yield so pleasant an odor, is liable to drop
from the needle into the lamp, and rarely gives so handsome a color, the golden brown
being streaked here and there with black. This process is known as "cooking" the
opium. Having brought it to a proper consistence, the operator, with a rapid, twirling
motion of the fingers, rolls the mass, still upon the yen hanck, upon the broad
surface of the bowl, submitting it occasionally to the flame, catching it now and then
upon the edge of the bowl and pulling it out into strings, in order to cook it through
more thoroughly. This is called chying the mass. Rolling it again upon the bowl
until formed into a pea-shaped mass, with the needle as a centre, the needle is forced
down into the small hole in the bowl, thus leveling off the bottom of the pea (chandoo-tschandu.)
Then grasping the stem of the pipe near the bowl in the left hand, the bowl is held across
the flame of the lamp to warm it, the bottom of the opium mass being at the same time
heated, the needle is thrust into the aperture in the centre of the bowl, and withdrawn
with a twisting motion, leaving the opium with a hole in its centre, upon the surface of
the bowl. Inclining the body slightly forward, the smoker tips the pipe bowl across the
lamp until the opium is just above the flame. Inhaling strongly and steadily, the smoke
passes into the lungs of the operator, and is returned through the mouth and nose. This
smoke is heavy, white, and has a not unpleasant fruity odor. It is hardly necessary to
say, as is asserted by some, that this smoke escapes from the ears and eyes also.

Having finished this bolus, which requires but
one long or a few short inhalations, the habitué cools the bowl of the pipe with a damp
sponge, and repeats the operation of cooking, rolling, and smoking until the desired
effects are obtained. Smokers are said to take the "long draw" or the
"short draw" according to whether they consume a pill in one long or several
short inspirations. The long draw, or single inspiration, by means of which the smoke
passes directly into the lungs, distending them to their full capacity, is unquestionably
the most injurious, and those who smoke in this way form the habit the soonest, and are
the hardest to break.

As much misconception seems to exist regarding
the kind of pipe and other apparatus used in smoking opium as with other details of the
subject. Thus a writer in Blackwoods Magazine, otherwise accurate, makes the
following curiously false statement: * "The Chinese extract from Indian opium all
that water will dissolvegenerally from one-half to three-fourths of its
weightdry the dissolved extract, and make it into pills of the size of a pea. One of
these pills they put into a short, tiny pipe, often made of silver [italics mine],
inhale a few puffs at a time, or one single long puff, and return the smoke through the
nostrils and ears," etc., etc. [italics mine]. The same author states in
another place that adepts in the practice return the smoke through the eyes, ears,
and nose.

* "The Narcotics We Indulge In," Blackwood,
November, 1853.

So far as can be learned, opium has always been
smoked in the kind of pipe now in use. The large amount of ash, the necessity for holding
over a flame during the smoking, and the advantage of a flat mouth-piece for long
inhalation, make the one style of opium pipe the only one that can be used with any
satisfaction. This pipe, the origin and antiquity of which are unknown, though supposed to
have originated in Arabia, consists of two parts, a stem and a bowl. The stem is of
bamboo, so cut that it includes the space between two joints and one-quarter of the next.
The best measure twenty-four inches in length and about four inches in circumference.
Those that are from sixteen to twenty inches in length and from one and a half to three
inches in circumference are imperfect, the bamboo having been cut when too young. They do
not color well, and are not so convenient to handle. When new they are of a straw-color,
but with long smoking become black and glossy, the coloring matter of the opium having
thoroughly permeated the wood. In poor pipes this color is imitated by staining with a
dye.

The value of a good pipe increases with its age,
it acquiring a strength and odor much prized by old smokers. Ah Sing, the keeper of a
joint in this city, has a pipe said to be a hundred years old. Ivory stems, while very
handsome, are objected to on the ground of excessive weight, lack of flavor, and the
length of time it takes to color them.

There is a pipe known as "the lemon
pipe," the stem and sometimes the bowl of which are made of rings of lemon-peel
cemented together, layer over layer. When thoroughly dried they are smoothed off, and are
much liked by some on account of the peculiar lemon flavor that is given off when opium is
smoked in them. They are worth $25. An ordinary pipe costs $5, a good one from $15 to $50.

The Chinese, in preparing the best stems, coat
the inside with "cooked" Chinese opium, in order to give them a rich flavor and
hasten their coloring.

At the junction of the middle and lower third of
the stem, and just back of the joint, which is usually marked by some oddly carved image
made from the stump there protruding, a place is hollowed out of the side of the stem, and
communicates with the longitudinal perforation. About this hollow fits closely a metallic
shield, usually of brass, sometimes of gold or silver, having a raised rim. Into this is
fitted the bowl.

The stems are plain, carved or ornamented with
bands of silver, gold, or ivory. Good pipes are always ivory-tipped. That part of the stem
from the bowl down is for ornament, to equalize the weight of the whole, and for
convenience of holding and guiding while smoking.

The bowl, which is usually of a hard red clay and
hollow, may be bell shaped, ovate, or hexagonal. On the under surface is a metal flange or
neck, by which it is fitted into the stem. It is usually wrapped with cloth to make it fit
more accurately. The upper surface of the bowl is either flat or slightly rounded. In its
centre is an opening of about sufficient size to admit an ordinary knitting-needle. The
opium pipe is called by the Chinese the yen tsiang, or opium pistol.

The other articles necessary to complete a
smokers outfit are: a box of buffalo horn (hop toy) to hold the opium; a long
needle (yen hanck), on the end of which the opium is taken up, "cooked,"
and fixed upon the bowl; a small glass lamp, with a perforated bell-shaped glass cover,
and in which sweet or nut oil is burned; a pair of scissors for trimming the wick;
straight and curved knives for cleaning the needle and bowl; a sponge to clean and cool
the surface of the bowl; a box for the ash, or yen tshi; and two trays, the one
smaller than the other, on which all these articles rest.